What Does Ezra 5:8 Mean in the King James?
Be it known unto the king, that we went into the province of Judea, to the house of the great God, which is builded with great stones, and timber is laid in the walls, and this work goeth fast on, and prospereth in their hands.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The passage calls this the great God’s house, yet places its progress in human hands.
THE MEANING
The great God’s house takes shape in stone and timber, and its work moves forward and prospers in the hands that build it. The verse speaks now: sacred work can be visible in material effort and steady progress.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s work must happen apart from human labor; here, the work prospers in the builders’ hands.
THE ROOT
מִתְבְּנֵא
mitbene
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
Build, establish, make a structure.
“builded” in this verse is mitbene. The Aramaic verb describes the house as being built, while the verse names the stones, timber, and hands through which that takes form. The related Hebrew word בֵּן (ben, “son”) carries a household echo: building can reach beyond a structure to what a household brings forth.
ALSO GROWS
binyan: Building, structure.
בִּנְיָן
This names the formed structure that the verse shows taking shape from stone and timber.
ben: Son.
בֵּן
Its close sound and traditional link with בנה gives building a generative echo: a household can be built through its children.
עָבִידְתָּא
ʿăvîdtā
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
Work, do, serve.
The word for “work” comes from the same root that names serving and a servant. The verse therefore lets the construction itself carry the sound of service: the house is built through labor rendered by human hands.
ALSO GROWS
ʿavad: Serve, work.
עָבַד
The same root joins the builders’ labor to service.
ʿeved: Servant.
עֶבֶד
This branch shows how the root of the work also names the one who serves.
מַצְלַח
matzlaḥ
GROWS FROM
צלח
ṣ-l-ḥ
Advance, succeed, make headway.
The word translated “prospereth” gives the work a sense of moving forward. Its root appears again when Ezra describes the builders prospering, so success is joined to the work’s advance as it is built.
ALSO GROWS
ṣālaḥ: Advance, succeed, prosper.
צָלַח
This verb names the forward movement carried by “prospereth.”
haṣlaḥāh: Success, prosperity.
הַצְלָחָה
This noun names the resulting success from the same root of advancing.
THE PATTERN
Work entrusted to human hands can become a visible structure and make headway.
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.THE THREAD
And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.The Aramaic uses the same צלח (ṣ-l-ḥ, “advance, prosper”) root for “prospered” here as in Ezra 5:8. It appears alongside the builders’ progress, opening prosperity as the work advancing while it is being built.
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